In his mind, Isak was already answering his own questions which would inevitably be the questions of others. It was a perfectly normal precaution, for him, that had served him well in the past. So of course there was no reason to not continue that practice.
“Okay, so if they ask-”
“They will not ask me anything, Mas-”
“But if they do…?”
“Then I tell them that my duty is to keep you safe, and all questions are best answered by you.”
“Close enough!” Isak said with a thumbs up and a small cheer to the rock man. This made things much simpler, as he just had to rely on his own story telling. Which, once again, was going to be a simple affair.
All he had to do was inform them that due to the complexities and unknownities of such an enigma as Vidal, his professor had had to request further academic documentation on the precise physical composition of Vidal’s individual rocks which there was no conclusive evidence as to them all being the same, much less if they were technically rocks or rather stones which actually mattered a lot depending upon which academic source was consulted as the possibility of them being stones meant it might be purely of this world as opposed to rocks which might in fact include the possibility of an extra worldly origin which may mean that the question was beyond current understanding and you should stop asking about it.
Simple.
Isak came to a halt, blinking a few times to get himself out of a mild daze. He pinched the high bridge of his nose and shook his head several times to ground himself. Looking around, he was still on campus, somewhere around the student dorms, mid day, scattered groups of students hurrying along to escape the increasing rain passing by and paying him no mind, and he should probably just tell them his professor had no solid answers yet.
It’s so simple it would probably work!
And more importantly, it would keep everyone from finding out how much he was lagging behind everyone else until he could catch up and no one would be the wiser.
Simple.
And all that planning thinking in the middle of the pathway had only gotten him several bewildered stares from passing students including a grey furred bugbear who had almost tripped over him now grumbling to himself as he readjusted his book bag.
“Sorry!” Isak called out to the student in the yellow shirt. “I was just...thinking! See because it’s...it’s school…”
He gave up that attempt at righting the situation when the bugbear shot a confused look over his shoulder and the human withered and decided to find another route to the library instead of one filled with probably no less than a few of those several students who had glared or looked at him and Vidal with confusion. Isak hurried along, trying not to dwell too hard but still all too aware that Vidal was one to draw attention as something completely unique. Having a rarity as a mage only added to it.
“C’mon, Isak.” The human chided himself with a grimace. “Don’t rest under open skies, nothing’s changed.”
The rain picked up just a bit more into a light drizzle that threatened to worsen.
“Okay, rainy but still technically open.” He corrected himself as he promised himself to focus more on his Storm spell when he studied with Tonauac tomorrow for their Core Spells class.
Isak passed through one of the many entrances to the library, descending the stairs and catching the unsure looks from librarians behind the check-out desks that lessened each time Vidal didn’t cause widespread destruction within. A record that Isak insisted would remain untarnished, and promised to find at least one form that wasn’t naturally destructive to books and scrolls.
“The water doesn’t even mist off of him, see!” The boy explained to a dwerrow librarian he had not encountered yet, likely due to this being a library entrance he had not taken yet. “And I’m working on other nice, safe forms that would pose not even a *hint* of a problem!”
The elderly dwerrow’s eyelids sagged over blue eyes as she waved him through. “He’s not on fire, so you’re ahead of students who bring dragons or other familiars of fire affinity in here.”
“That is correct! He is not and will never be on fire!” Isak held up a hand in an oath and smiled a broad grin, leaving the “-in here” unspoken.
The librarian blinked, resting her chin on her palm as she stared at the human. “I will be sure to pray to The Wise Hydra himself in thanks that we have students so desperate for knowledge that they make excuses to bring in a walking natural disaster to the library. And if you have no further disasters to declare, go and harvest the earthblood.”
She waved Isak off again as she returned to reading her book, leaving the human to promise himself to get a clarification on what that phrase meant from Zyn later after running under the assumption that it was from Mu in general as opposed to specific to one of the peoples of Mu.
A musing that lost out to immediately wishing that switching Vidal to his fire form was an option to dry himself off. Though Isak did put a finger to his chin as he looked at Vidal’s water form and considered a possibility.
“Is it possible for you to manipulate water outside of yourself?” Isak asked the rock man. “Like, say, to remove the water from my clothes to dry me off?”
Vidal looked down to the young mage. “Similar to the other forms I have seen thus far, my powers of manipulation of a given element are limited to the element that currently composes my form as it is the magical version of that element.”
“Another extended no, but good to know!” Isak shrugged, brushing his damp hair back out of his face and leading onward with VIdal in tow. Making it only about a dozen steps before he came to a stop and turned to face the rock man with the thought that had caught him. “You said, forms that you had seen so far. Are you...uncertain enough to think that might not be true for all of them?”
The rock man’s whirlpool eyes looked up from Isak, staring off into space as they pulsed and swirled. He didn’t look back down when he responded “An answer in the negative could not be stated with certainty, though I am unable to fully confirm a positive answer due to insufficient information.”
Isak’s brow raised in direct opposition to his mouth falling open shortly before he shook off his shock and waved Vidal to follow. “Hold that thought until we have more heads to put towards it.”
The human hurried off through the library past a labyrinth of book filled shelves and students either in the middle of study or taking refuge from the rain. Even more of which were from Mu than usual, though many of them did seem to be distracted enough to cast less wary and curious stares towards Isak and Vidal than most others.
It was a welcome reprieve for the human who had already been doing his best to ignore all of the attention he seemed to be getting ever since coming to Black Reef Institute. Isak prided himself on keeping aware, and being aware of such attention was something he still wasn’t fully processing yet. Even now he hurried along, pointedly looking at shelf names and other signs to navigate towards the agreed upon meeting place with Xoco.
Somewhere around the intersection of Astronomy texts and Ritual references, Isak slowed ever so slightly as he cast his gaze between two paths in front of him. He put a hand to his chin, hummed aloud before letting out a small “ah!” in triumph as he proceeded down the correct path and kept his eyes forward while listening closely to the other side of the bookshelf on the path not taken.
Several shelves back he had the overwhelming feeling of being followed, and as he had slowed his pace to ‘remember’ the correct path he had heard half a footstep fall out of cadence with his own. And as the human continued on past the towering shelves of books he forced a single sneeze into the crook of his arm, hearing someone react a second later on the other side of the shelf by missing a step.
Isak rolled his eyes and did a half turn to Vidal while walking on. “It was just a little rain and I wasn’t even out there that long!”
“I believe you shall remain in good health, Master Isak.” Vidal responded.
“Yeah, I sure hope I didn’t catch anything.” The human said with a roll of his eyes that he hoped was somehow loud enough for the overly nosey Zyn to hear on the other side. “That would just be absurd!”
Isak heard nothing more until he got to the meeting spot with Xoco, turning around only once to glare at empty space in the likely event that Zyn was still snooping about unseen. His glare turned to a bright smile a moment later as he saw Xoco waiting and waving to him with another pile of books already splayed out across the table. The human waved back and joined her at the table, taking a seat.
“Good news!” Isak said with restrained enthusiasm, still not wanting to raise his voice enough to anger the librarians. “And it comes straight from the rock’s mouth!....okay, metaphorical mouth because I think it just emits sound rather than- nevermind. He has information, I think. Or at least knows that the information is incomplete? I thought it would be better to have a few of us thinking on this rather than just me...uh, I mean...hi how are you? Would you like to hear some good news?”
Isak was proud of himself for slinking down in his seat only slightly after realizing he had just launched into a speech out of nowhere. Xoco’s wide eyes and subsequent giggle followed by a grin helped to alleviate some of those social worries.
“I am well, it has been peaceful down here. And yes, I would love to hear some good news!” She said while holding back a chuckle and giving scritches to Nelli. “Do you have any?”
“Yes!” Isak sat up in his seat with a nervous grin. “Let’s pretend I said all of that news now rather than at the start?”
“That’s very good news that I just now heard, then!”
The human was thankful for the previous rain that hopefully hid some nervous beads of sweat running down his forehead to go along with the nervous laughter before he launched into a more thorough explanation of what Vidal had said. The jungle troll listened intently, pulling out her notebook to scribble out some hasty notes as she looked back and forth from Isak to the rock man.
“That is...very interesting.” Xoco’s thin violet brows pressed together as she stared at her notes. “I’m not entirely certain what to do with it, but all information is of potential use.”
“Hmm.” Isak studied the rock man. “Vidal would you ever knowingly lie to me?”
“Never.” Vidal’s response was a touch more definitive than normal. Enough so to get Xoco to look up from her notes. “If I lack sufficient knowledge, it is my duty to present a most likely truth.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The human boy nodded as he listened. “Alright, so basically your best guess but without fully committing to something that might not be true?”
“Affirmative.”
Isak flipped the pages of an open book back and forth as he thought, not paying attention to what was on the pages at all. Xoco tilted her head at him.
“You have an idea?” She asked.
“Maybe.” Isak flicked the book shut before looking up at her. “When hunting and trapping, sometimes you’re not just looking for tracks and signs left behind. It’s also important to be aware of what isn’t there but should be. You know, like no calls when there should be. Or no mushrooms growing where they should be.”
Xoco’s eyes shifted to the side for a moment. “Um, yes!”
Isak’s brow raised only slightly in response but he continued. “So certainty should be there for Vidal. If I stumble into more of it and I catch it, that might help us figure him out. Not helping with the language thing directly but maybe pointing us in the right direction? I dunno, we could always go find our other friends and get their input?”
“No no I think I get it! And yes, more friends to help would also be good too!” Xoco held up her hands in defense and gave a sharp smile. “I think Tonauac should be at the medical building.”
The human glanced over towards the shelves. “Yeah let’s start there, no idea where our other friend might be.”
Xoco was confused for a moment before looking over Isak. “Is it raining out?”
“Hmm? Oh.” Isak uselessly patted himself down for a moment before giving up. “Yeah, it was just starting to pick up when I got to the library.”
The jungle troll reached down into her book bag and retrieved a collapsible purple umbrella that Isak couldn’t help but note as looking very expensive. She leaned it against the table and asked “Did you forget yours in the dorm? As much as I love rain I can’t help but expect it growing up in a jungle.”
“Yes!” Isak lied with a nod and a casual crossing of his arms. “Must have slipped my mind and...oh, oh gosh I hope I didn’t forget it back home…”
He had not forgotten it back home, because he had never owned an umbrella in his life. Only a simple woolen cloak to keep rain and wind off of him that was poorly suited to a tropical environment on the best of days.
Xoco still frowned in concern. “Oh dear, well let’s start with getting you dry. Nelli?”
She roused the feathered serpent from her lazy state with a gentle hand to her chin. Nelli blinked a bit and slithered out from around her perch on Xoco’s neck as Isak held up his hands.
“Really it’s not that bad. Already drying off-”
The human was silenced as the small feathered serpent flew into action. She darted above his head and flew in a tight coiling spiral to blast him with a gust of wind to blow both his hair and pages of nearby open books in every which direction. One almost blew off the table but lightning reflexes from Xoco saw it caught. And no sooner than Isak had flinched at the miniature gale was Nelli flying back to her shoulder perch and flicking her tongue out at the lad.
“Huh.” Isak attempted to make something presentable of his black locks now sticking out in every direction. “Uh, thank you Nelli. And Xoco of course.”
The jungle troll smiled and stood as she started to gather and put away books. “Think nothing of it! Maybe we can return to our research on Vidal later after we confer with our friends?”
“Call it a-” Isak shot a glance over towards the shelves once more while aiding her in putting books away. “Reschedule! Come on, let's go find them.”
The pair made their way out of the library as they chatted about classes and Isak ‘admitted’ to his professor not having any conclusive answers about Vidal. Which was still not a lie. By the time they had exited the library the rain had picked up just enough that most students were only venturing out and about on campus with the aid of umbrellas. Most students of course not including those such as nymphs and sirens who were all smiles at the abundance of water to make them feel more at home.
As Isak walked along with Xoco and her umbrella large enough to keep both of them dry, he noted to himself that he was already starting to adjust to the abundance of people with sharp teeth bared in otherwise friendly expressions. He recalled reading that it was a product of cultural melding in The Empire, spreading from those without sharp teeth to those with various knives and needles in their mouths as a more acceptable gesture than the handshake. Which remained easily mistaken for an aggressive action in many parts of the world where claws were in abundance.
He also remembered something about walking together under an umbrella being a romantic thing in various books.
Which was absurd and not worth spending any more time thinking about as he refocused his attention over to Vidal plodding through the rain and puddles as though it were nothing in his water form. Isak chuckled and shook his head as he took the opportunity to glance around, waiting for Zyn to slip again and reveal himself to still be snooping on the two.
“There we are, the medical building!” Xoco pointed towards the large crescent moon shaped building adorned with an all inclusive array of skull designs carved into the stonework, with another two large vulture statues flanking the entrance. Adjacent to it, only a short distance away, was an impressively sized yet still quite a bit smaller green house with many large glass panes that retained a stonework facade with a large overhang.“And look who’s already here!”
Zyn was pacing about under the overhang with a number of other students from Mu, all of whom were looking exceptionally nervous.
At some point in the walk over here, Isak was going to ask why Tonauac was at the medical building but instead he mentally stumbled as he saw his drow friend pacing back and forth.
“Zyn?” Isak called out. “What are you doing here?”
The drow came to a halt, looking over his shoulder at Isak with a nervous smile. “Oh hey! You know just...just checking out the greenhouse, because it’s also a darkhouse underneath and it had some fungi from Mu and you know...we were all just...just really homesick.”
“Yeah!” A dwerrow boy with a beard Isak wouldn’t be able to match for at least several years who was pacing just as hard as Zyn joined in the conversation. “We’re all just...hanging out. Catching up...how do you Openlanders call it...talking about the weather…”
Half the students under the overhang glared at the dwerrow boy, others turned and averted their eyes, and a few started breathing heavily.
“Haha!” Zyn’s laugh was as painfully fake as his smile. “The weather? Who even notices that up here! I sure...don’t...notice…”
His attention was caught by a spout of water drizzling down the side of the overhang, and his eyes went wide for just a moment before a tap of Ozzy’s tentacle on his jaw pulled him out of his daze and he turned back to Isak. “How are you? How was research? How was...how...yeah.”
Isak and Xoco shared a bewildered look before turning back to Zyn. The human in particular had many questions, some of which were only just starting to take hold.
“Is this...about the rain?” Xoco just cut right to it.
The entire small group of students from Mu formed a chorus of swearing up and down that no, of course it was not the rain and they were just a group of dwerrow, svirfneblin, and drow all getting along fine and not at all trapped here under the overhang. The door behind them all opened, and a svirfneblin girl who looked to be a year or two ahead of Isak and his friends yet still shorter than all gathered casually walked out before pulling a small umbrella from her bag and walking into the rain as the others from Mu looked on in confusion and a bit of guilt.
“What?” She stopped as she felt everyone’s stares. “You get used to it. Also I grew up in a surface city.”
With a final shrug she walked off without another care.
“Hah!” A what looked to be second year drow girl forced a pained laugh, with the tunnel squid perched on her shoulder eyed warrily. “It’s nothing! Nothing to be afraid of! You’re all cowards! All of you! I don’t even need this!”
Her shaking hands pulled an umbrella from her book bag and fumbled it onto the ground before she quickly retrieved it and then immediately cast it aside. “Who even needs high ground? I’ll show you what bravery looks like!”
Bravery looked like her taking several deep breaths and heavy exhales as she shook her hands out at her sides, staring down the rain and jogging in place before sprinting out into the rain with a mighty shout that upon closer inspection may have been hiding tears in the moments before they were hid by the rain as her tunnel squid flew after her.
Xoco raised a hand in warning out to the girl. “Watch out for the-”
The drow girl slipped on the slick grass and fell in a pathetic fashion a moment later. After scrambling to her feet she ran off to the medical building, slamming the doors behind her with only enough time for her tunnel squid to dart in. Zyn grabbed the cast aside umbrella.
“Y-yeah see?” Zyn claimed, shaking hands on the umbrella undermining his words. “Nothing! But just to be safe, I’ll take this umbrella.”
“Zyn it’s just rain.” Isak finally said after only so very much shaking of his head. “What’s this about?”
“The sky is leaking!” Every one of the Mu students cried in unison before glancing at eachother for a moment and going back to not looking at eachother.
Zyn explained after a moment. “Listen, down in Mu if water is leaking from above it means you need to seek shelter because that’s usually riiiight before a flood or cave in. Now, I don’t know about them but I only ever went to the surface once before coming to Black Reef Institute so the ‘sky’ leaking? Yeah that’s just...well it’s just not right!”
“But you were-” Isak saw that Zyn and Ozy alike were both completely dry. “How...long have you been waiting here?”
The drow boy avoided eye contact as he mumbled out. “I made it through five whole drops of rain before I bolted for the first building that offered shelter.”
“I made it through six!” A dwerrow girl exclaimed before hanging her head low. “Right, not a competition. Your non-stop rambling about the history of sky city discoveries since the moment I got here was a welcomed distraction and I apologize.”
Zyn waved her off. “I just do that.”
Isak and Xoco both nodded in confirmation, remembering that exact ramble just yesterday at the beach. As if on cue, Tonauac had managed to find the group as he strolled up under his own simple umbrella held in the beak of Patli.
“It’s true, though now I’m worried if you gave us that same lecture last night.” Tonauac put a claw to his jaw. “I didn’t realize your phobia was that bad.”
“I’m working on it!” He defended as Ozzy reached up to pat his head with a few tentacles.
“I have it on good authority that school is for improvement,” Isak reassured his friend with a wink towards Vidal “so don’t worry about it.”
Zyn nodded, shaking hands popping open the umbrella as he joined his friends out in the rain. With breathing fast enough to make Tonauac worry but it remained even enough. Isak looked to the remaining students carefully eyeing the rain with cautious glances. There was a much to talk about with his friends but he didn’t want to just leave the other students here in terror. “Uh, anything we can do to help? We’re heading back to the dorms and we could stop by a library entrance.”
Initially they all dismissed it while insisting that they were still just waiting here voluntarily, though after one asked to tag along for safety in numbers they all eventually relented and agreed to join the group. As they all walked together through the rain and back to a library entrance that would allow them dry passage to the dorms, several kept insisting aloud that this was just a completely coincidental walk that they were all on to a mutual destination. No one interrupted as they understood that like Zyn’s current third exact same lecture on the history of sky city discoveries it was a coping mechanism of talking themselves through it.
Gratitude and thanks were exchanged at the library entrance, some more reluctant than others, as Isak and friends were finally alone. Leaving the human to stare past the Mu students down into the library with a cautious eye, wondering just who it was that was following him down there.
“So…” He started. “Let’s head back to my dorm for a change, we don’t all have to keep quiet there. Learned some new things we wanted your input on.”
They all agreed, and Isak only cast a final glance back toward the library as they walked across campus.